Nissan, Pac-Man Creator Team up to Design New Vehicle Sounds
You may have heard that automakers like Audi are spending a lot of time and effort to design the sound of electric vehicles people will drive in the future, but the various chimes and auditory alerts in all cars and trucks don’t seem to get much love.
Those associated with the many safety and driver assistance technologies can become pretty annoying after a while. Lincoln did something cool about that, partnering with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to create smooth and soothing sounds for the Aviator SUV.
- Also: Nissan Ariya Hits French Roads, Monaco in First Public Outing
- Also: All-new Nissan Z Leaked Before Official Debut
Nissan is trying to do the same for its new models like the Rogue by teaming up with Bandai Namco, as explained in the following video:
If the name Bandai rings a bell, it’s perfectly normal. This is the Japanese video game maker that gave us Pac-Man, Gundam, Pole Position, Tekken, Ace Combat and many more.
One of the sound designers in the video is Minamo Takahashi, a composer on the Tekken 3 soundtrack. It’s interesting to hear him talk about the challenge of designing car sounds, and to compare old and new versions of certain chimes and alerts including turn signals, seatbelt reminder, headlights-off reminder and door lock sound.
It probably would be too much to ask for the Pac-Man theme song to play at vehicle start-up (how funny would that be?), but these are the sort of details that can make a difference in how drivers interact with their cars.